A 60s Child

I have long realised that I had a magical upbringing in a small village in North Wiltshire called Little Somerford.  Unfortunately, I did not realise it at the time and took all the comings and goings, high and low points of village life not just for granted but as total normality.  That is because back then it was.  Now, with a huge amount of rose-tinted hindsight I see it as a happy, carefree time filled with interesting events. I don’t think it was for my parents they had to work really hard to balance their books and look after two little girls.  Life revolved around work and chores so the odd times when we walked around the sunlit meadows or went for a Sunday evening ride in the car along quiet country lanes were a highlight.  Back then, I could not envisage how things would change so much in my lifetime but I was born only 17 years after World War 2.  In the 1960’s the world was still recovering and stabilising waiting for the next big thing which was technology.

I look back on having so many of my family living in the same area as a wonderful thing but back then families got together for high days and holidays, the rest of the time being spent grinding out a living either in the workplace, in the home or in my case on the dreaded allotment. Perhaps we were different but having family around perpetually was just something we took for granted.  I wish I hadn’t, I wish that I had visited each and ever one of them frequently and found out all about their lives.  Now, they lie in peaceful repose in the village graveyard and it is too late.

Nothing out of the ordinary happens in the book.   Some bad things happened to members of my family but those things happen to every one at some point in their lives particularly if war is involved.  My paternal Grandad, in particular, who survived the war by the skin of his teeth but struggled all of his life to come to terms with what he had witnessed.  He was a very grumpy man and much misunderstood by everybody but once I was old enough, I realised why.  Everyday life is tough to take when you have lost all of your best friends on the battle field.

The reason I wrote the book is because life back then was so different to that of now and if it is not recorded then history will be lost.  I also wrote it because I believe that my childhood was great, full of big events and interesting characters. The sense of community was huge and the lack of technological distractions meant things like the annual village fete, the Malmesbury Carnival and Somerford Show were big events waited for in great anticipation like the Strictly final is now. 

The picture on the cover is that of me on the way to a christening at the age of 6 dressed in beautifully tailored clothes made by my talented mother.